Two archers

The forest was unnaturally silent, which was to be expected given the situation. The two archers stood back to back keeping their eyes on the men who had ambushed them. Truth was there might be women in the band, but neither archer had noticed. They had only seen target after target fall.

The run that had brought them to the current clearing wasn’t enough to keep from being surrounded. Fortunately, the two archers had earned the respect of their foes. Unfortunately, respect did not mean that they were out of the woods, yet. Not that actually being out of the woods would have helped them at this point.

“I’ve only got six,” she said. Her voice was lined with a smirk.

“I’ve got three.” He was a little chagrinned that he was the weak link.

She turned just slightly to her right; he turned to his left and took one of her arrows. Not an even split, but that wasn’t odd.

“What are we going to do now?” She asked. They both had arrows on their bows but kept from drawing. No need to waste the strength when there weren’t any viable targets.

“Thank god that these guys only brought melee weapons and didn’t have bows, slings or stop to pick up rocks.”

“Which god?”

“We can discuss that later.”

The raiders stayed hidden and just out of bow range. Not one of them had the courage to approach the two archers, which was probably the best for both sides. Running out of arrows is a desperate situation; getting killed by an arrow was on another level of desperate.

“It’s been a good fight,” she said.

“It’s not over.” He chuckled to bolster both people’s courage. He knew the situation looked hopeless, but they had survived other situations. There was no point in dying until they actually died. Sure, it was just a matter of time before one of the raiders got brave, and if they all rushed at once, there was very little possibility of survival. Even if the two archers took out nine of the raiders, the next sequence would feature hand to hand combat.

It took time to be great at something, and they were two of the best archers. Unfortunately, that left far too little time to practice with other weapons. It wasn’t that they weren’t adequate, just that they weren’t skilled enough to take on more than three or four enemies at a time.

Every second that the attack was delayed was another second that they could take advantage of. An opportunity would present itself, or they would have to make one.

“They aren’t giving us any space?” He asked.

“Not on my side.” She said.

“I don’t suppose there is an area where it looks like there are fewer of them.” He was hopeful.

“Sorry, friend, they look pretty well situated.”

“Hmm. I guess, we could make our own hole. If we wait much longer they are going to get the upper hand easily. If we move, we have a fighting chance of sorts. Doubling back might allow us to recover some arrows.” It was an archer’s worst nightmare – having no arrows and facing a group of enemies.

“Other than dying, what’s the worst that can happen?” She asked.

“You really don’t want to know,” he smirked.

She laughed lightly. He knew what she was about to do. They turned together and ran back toward the group of unsuspecting raiders. Then they laughed.

They didn’t laugh because the situation was funny. They didn’t laugh because of the unsettling affect it had on the raiders. They didn’t laugh for any other reason than that it was freeing, and they understood that, at that moment, they were freer than they had ever been. This move was the game changer. They wouldn’t have to follow anyone else’s rules ever again, even if they survived.